I feel that I am a bit behind since I started the class on Day 2. I am still a little confused on what Twitter does and how to use it properly. However I am having an amusing time asking my friends and students "Do you Twitter?." I should be amassing a photograph collection of the various looks and reactions I receive from that question. Many are afraid to answer for fear of confessing to some defiant behavior. Alas, I have yet to find a Twitter enthusiast to tutor me on its application. Yet I will still stay on my quest. Perhaps I need to venture out to some coffee houses or book stores where numerous computer users hang out or perhaps use one of my One to One sessions at my local Apple store to get some assistance.
In an attempt to catch up I have visited the various sites and established accounts. Perhaps over the highly anticipated three weeks of vacation I will hone my skills and get a greater understanding of these applications. However, I was familiar with iGoogle and have been using that as my home page for over a year now. I equate it with organizing your desktop. It allows me to navigate between various websites that I have to access during my day at school. It also allows me to stay in touch with the current events of the day and provides some information that I can share with students. Various widgets, "Quote of the Day," "This Day in History," I have incorporated into our school announcements. For me iGoogle has been my initial attempt at building my own website. I now need to venture off into a more advanced application and link a webpage for our Students Activities on our school website. Another item on my holiday to do list.
Now that I am working in an administrative position I see the value in being able to disseminate information in a timely manner. However in probably no other profession the resistance to technology is still prevalent in education. Just trying to get teachers to use the "antiquated" email system at our school is quite a task. I can only imagine the amount of savings on paper our school would enjoy if we could only get everyone on board and adopt the technology. But I must admit the programs that our district adopts for technology are quite frustrating at times to many users and hence the reluctance. Unfortunately, education pay does not lend itself to really acquire the technologically talented to work in our district IT departments. But slowly we are moving our staff into the right direction. All our attendance and grades are done online as well as access to test scores and benchmark performance for our students. Now its just a matters of understanding what the numbers mean and tayloring our teaching for every student.
Reflection 2
I honestly can't imagine anyone who can't use an office suite program being able to properly function in our school environment. From making tests, presenting information and accessing or analyzing data you really need the proper technology skills. Even as a coach, preparing materials for the team and many of my administrative tasks are done on the computer. As a teacher I present curriculum via PowerPoint, track grades with Excel and prepare study guides with Word. Working in an environment with numerous English Learners I've found that using the computer and projecting computer screens allows these students to follow along with my presentations visually instead of orally. Also students can grasp numbers much more easily when presented in graph form.
As a coach I prepare schedules, rosters and track stats all with these programs. I also conduct preseason meetings with PowerPoint and present an end of the season slide show. I can see the trend towards having documents in the clouds as a potential solution to being able to access files more easily. I am currently migrating data from various computers due to my job change and the fact that I've switched from PC to Mac on my home computer. I am always running back and forth between computers because I haven't have time to completely backup all my previous work on an external hard drive. Compatibility is always an issue, but what prompted my platform switch was that it is increasingly easier to share files between PC and Mac users now. Yet there are still problems when preparing a file on one computer and then trying to use it on another that doesn't have the same version software or fonts. The idea of Google docs can help in that manner.
Since the first few days before starting my teaching career (1989) when I was presented a with a new MacIntosh lab, until now I have used a computer daily. I distinctly remember showing up four days before school started and getting a crash course on using the little MacIntosh computers with a mouse(?). That first year I stayed only a few steps ahead of my students. And still today they can teach me a thing or two especially when it comes to texting and social networking sites. However I have yet to find one who "Twitters."
This is my first attempt at a wikispace. This is my first picture as a quasi-administrator simple because I have a walkie-talkie.
My Social Networking Diigo Site: My Diigo Site:
Reflections
I feel that I am a bit behind since I started the class on Day 2. I am still a little confused on what Twitter does and how to use it properly. However I am having an amusing time asking my friends and students "Do you Twitter?." I should be amassing a photograph collection of the various looks and reactions I receive from that question. Many are afraid to answer for fear of confessing to some defiant behavior. Alas, I have yet to find a Twitter enthusiast to tutor me on its application. Yet I will still stay on my quest. Perhaps I need to venture out to some coffee houses or book stores where numerous computer users hang out or perhaps use one of my One to One sessions at my local Apple store to get some assistance.
In an attempt to catch up I have visited the various sites and established accounts. Perhaps over the highly anticipated three weeks of vacation I will hone my skills and get a greater understanding of these applications. However, I was familiar with iGoogle and have been using that as my home page for over a year now. I equate it with organizing your desktop. It allows me to navigate between various websites that I have to access during my day at school. It also allows me to stay in touch with the current events of the day and provides some information that I can share with students. Various widgets, "Quote of the Day," "This Day in History," I have incorporated into our school announcements. For me iGoogle has been my initial attempt at building my own website. I now need to venture off into a more advanced application and link a webpage for our Students Activities on our school website. Another item on my holiday to do list.
Now that I am working in an administrative position I see the value in being able to disseminate information in a timely manner. However in probably no other profession the resistance to technology is still prevalent in education. Just trying to get teachers to use the "antiquated" email system at our school is quite a task. I can only imagine the amount of savings on paper our school would enjoy if we could only get everyone on board and adopt the technology. But I must admit the programs that our district adopts for technology are quite frustrating at times to many users and hence the reluctance. Unfortunately, education pay does not lend itself to really acquire the technologically talented to work in our district IT departments. But slowly we are moving our staff into the right direction. All our attendance and grades are done online as well as access to test scores and benchmark performance for our students. Now its just a matters of understanding what the numbers mean and tayloring our teaching for every student.
Reflection 2
I honestly can't imagine anyone who can't use an office suite program being able to properly function in our school environment. From making tests, presenting information and accessing or analyzing data you really need the proper technology skills. Even as a coach, preparing materials for the team and many of my administrative tasks are done on the computer. As a teacher I present curriculum via PowerPoint, track grades with Excel and prepare study guides with Word. Working in an environment with numerous English Learners I've found that using the computer and projecting computer screens allows these students to follow along with my presentations visually instead of orally. Also students can grasp numbers much more easily when presented in graph form.
As a coach I prepare schedules, rosters and track stats all with these programs. I also conduct preseason meetings with PowerPoint and present an end of the season slide show. I can see the trend towards having documents in the clouds as a potential solution to being able to access files more easily. I am currently migrating data from various computers due to my job change and the fact that I've switched from PC to Mac on my home computer. I am always running back and forth between computers because I haven't have time to completely backup all my previous work on an external hard drive. Compatibility is always an issue, but what prompted my platform switch was that it is increasingly easier to share files between PC and Mac users now. Yet there are still problems when preparing a file on one computer and then trying to use it on another that doesn't have the same version software or fonts. The idea of Google docs can help in that manner.
Since the first few days before starting my teaching career (1989) when I was presented a with a new MacIntosh lab, until now I have used a computer daily. I distinctly remember showing up four days before school started and getting a crash course on using the little MacIntosh computers with a mouse(?). That first year I stayed only a few steps ahead of my students. And still today they can teach me a thing or two especially when it comes to texting and social networking sites. However I have yet to find one who "Twitters."
http://jdvanderson.podOmatic.com My Practice Podcast: http://jdvanderson.podOmatic.com